Citizens' Panel First Survey

We have recruited a panel of over 2000 residents from across the borough with a diverse group of backgrounds. We asked these residents, ‘in light of the impact of Covid-19 on you and your community, what matters most to you now and what should the Council do to help?’.  

We also asked specific questions on what the Council can do to help recover from the Covid pandemic, about supporting people to gain new skills, getting into work, and improving the prospects of young people.

Health, safety, and housing were the top three areas that respondents said they value the most.  

The areas that were most important to respondents were: 

• Reducing crime and antisocial behaviour  
• Access to affordable and good quality housing  
• Good quality schools where all children achieve their potential  
• Helping people to stay healthy 
• Opportunities for young people  

Over two thirds (69 per cent) of respondents felt that education should be prioritised by the Council, followed by housing and homelessness (66 per cent), health services (64 per cent), mental health and wellbeing (59 per cent) and then parks and leisure services (54 per cent).

With regard to the Covid pandemic, over half of respondents identified supporting mental health and wellbeing and supporting local businesses (53 and 51 per cent respectively) as priorities for the Council.

When it comes to supporting people to gain new skills and get into work, a large proportion of respondents identified supporting people to reskill (71 per cent), connecting local people with local job opportunities (70 per cent) and increasing available training (68 per cent). When asked about young people’s prospects, around half of respondents selected improving and increasing local employment and opportunities for young people (50 per cent) and improving and increasing facilities and activities for young people (49 per cent).

The ideas, priorities and suggestions provided by our residents through this Citizens' Panel have now directly shaped the recently refreshed Council Plan, by enabling us to test our focus and commitments. The Plan responds to what has happened over the past 18 months, and how we want to support our communities to recover.

The Council Plan continues to prioritise Grenfell Recovery, supporting and safeguarding vulnerable residents, creating a borough that is healthy, clean and safe, a great place to live, work and learn, and a place of culture to visit and explore. Over the next three years, the Council will spend £355 million of capital, on homes, transport, the environment, and education.

The Citizens' Panel survey was based around these themes and we have updated the priorities to reflect our residents’ views and changes since the pandemic. The findings will also be considered in deciding how we spend the Covid Recovery fund and deliver services over the coming years. Going forward, we will continue to engage with the Citizens' Panel on a range of topics and we will consult with residents from specific wards through targeted surveys.

Respondents identified providing good quality schools where all children achieve their potential as a key priority. The Council is investing in the infrastructure of the borough’s schools. All of our schools are rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, and they have been flexible in maintaining through online learning and provision during the Covid pandemic.

A key priority for respondents was helping people to stay healthy. We are committed to providing high quality health services and we are working to protect and enhance services at the Royal Brompton Hospital. We will continue to invest in our parks and have re-opened our leisure centres with a new range of activities being developed for the coming year.

The pandemic has made mental health support a key priority for all and this was identified by over half of the Citizens' Panel respondents. The Council will continue to work with the NHS to deliver early intervention with those most at risk and to increase services in the wider community to support and improve the wellbeing of our residents.

Respondents identified supporting local businesses as a key priority for recovery from the Covid pandemic. We will create an environment where entrepreneurs and micro-businesses can flourish. We have also supported businesses to re-open, working with the hospitality and retail trade to ensure safe trading and expanding the use of al-fresco licencing to support high streets to recover. There have been changes to how we work with local businesses with new and established business forums that we will maintain, as well as issuing business grants. We will continue to work with and support businesses as Covid restrictions are lifted.

A large proportion of respondents identified supporting people to reskill to get into work as well as creating opportunities for young people. In the Council Plan, we are committed to co-creating a new youth offer with young people and children in the borough. We will target the recruitment of local people and the provision of new skills development and training opportunities, including apprenticeships. We are leading local partnerships to support young residents into work through the Government’s Kickstart work placement programme and our own targeted efforts. Going forward, we will lead by example by increasing job opportunities for local people in our supply chain and by providing council internships, work experience and apprenticeship and providing spaces for community services aimed at improving job readiness.

Next Steps

Being able to update our Council Plan now will ensure we are focusing our time and resources on the issues that matter most to residents.

In line with the Council’s commitment to the Charter for Public Participation, we will continue our conversations with residents when developing strategies such as the Council Plan and engage with them as part of the process to assess our performance and the delivery of these priorities